I have been trying to get to the bottom of this for half of a year. No one on this forum has been able to help me. It also seems like I'm the only person who is seriously trying to do this. I can not believe that no one else has already completed the task of converting 7 lug to an 8 lug(8X170) I wish someone could help.

 

the problme is it just does not work economically. Anything you do to modify the frontend from 7 to 8 bolt would cost more than just selling the old truck and getting smoething else.. I would bet most have just decided to "live with it".

 

The easiest way you are going to be able to do this. Go to a scrap yard and pull the complete front end of a 8 lug. Hubs, rotors, Knuckle, upper and lower arms, Heck i would even grab the steering. Then with all parts in hand sit down and start disasembeling your truck and figuring out what parts you need and don't need. Sell off all the spare parts from both veh and recover some of your costs.

 

How many splines are your axle shaft stubs? I wonder if any 8 lug unit bearings out there have the same spline count.

 

8 lug hub is 1/2 inch bigger than the 7 lug hub and wont bolt to the knuckle.

 

My thinking is if you can at least find a hub that fits the stub shafts then the hub and/or knuckle can be machined to fit.

 

Out of curiosity I did some digging around. The front axle is an 8.8 like the F150. The hubs are 33 spline with a 3 bolt flange. IIRC 94+ Dodge D60s used a 33 spline hub, but it has a 4 bolt flange.

 

There's wheel companies that don't have holes drilled till u order them . Local dealer Have list of contacts. You might just c if u can find same wheels for the front that match or all new ones

 

I am actually looking into the feasability of assembling and marketing an 8 lug conversion kit that will be a simple (using the term loosely due to the amount of work involved with the swap) drop in for the OE parts that includes front hubs, brake rotors Brake drums and rear axles and I am going to try to keep the cost of the whole kit right around $7-800 (Dependant ENTIRELY on the cost of the parts) for these trucks.

I to have recently come into possession of a 1997 F250ld 4x4 that has the 7 lug wheels and I hate em. 1, 7 is an odd number and just don't belong on lug nuts and 2 I want a set of wheels and the options for 7 lug wheels are EXTREMELY limited.

How many of you would be interested in something like this

 

I'm definitely interested in that. It's over a year since I started this posting. I'm about to have to get new tires. I'd love to be able to throw my other 2 rims on. They've just been dust collectors and space takers in the garage.